Colorants for body surfaces, such as hair, skin, and nails are well-known and frequently used in personal care products. Hair coloring agents may be divided into three categories, specifically, permanent, semi-permanent or direct, and temporary. The permanent hair dyes are generally oxidative dyes that provide hair color that lasts about four to six weeks. These oxidative hair dyes consist of two parts, one part contains the oxidative dyes in addition to other ingredients, while the second part contains an oxidizing agent such as hydrogen peroxide. The two components are mixed immediately prior to use. The oxidizing agent oxidizes the dye precursors, which then combine to form large color molecules within the hair shaft. Although the oxidative hair dyes provide long-lasting color, the oxidizing agents they contain cause hair damage. The semi-permanent or direct hair dyes are preformed dye molecules that are applied to the hair and provide color for about six to twelve shampoos. This type of hair dye is gentler to the hair because it does not contain peroxides, but the hair color does not last as long. Some improved durability is achieved by the use of nanoparticle hair coloring materials with a particle size of 10 to 500 nm, as described by Hensen et al. in WO 01045652. These nanoparticle hair coloring materials are conventional direct hair dyes that are treated to obtain nanoscale dimensions and exhibit increased absorption into the hair. Temporary hair dyes are coloring agents that are applied to the hair surface and are removed after one shampoo. It would be desirable to develop a hair coloring agent that provides the durability of the permanent hair dyes without the use of oxidizing agents that damage hair.
The major problem with the current skin colorants, non-oxidative hair dyes, as well as nail coloring agents is that they lack the required durability required for long-lasting effects. For this reason, there have been attempts to enhance the binding of cosmetic agents to the hair, skin or nails. For example, Richardson et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,490,980 and Green et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,267,957 describe the covalent attachment of cosmetic agents, such as skin conditioners, hair conditioners, coloring agents, sunscreens, and perfumes, to hair, skin, and nails using the enzyme transglutaminase. This enzyme crosslinks an amine moiety on the cosmetic agent to the glutamine residues in skin, hair, and nails. Similarly, Green et al. in WO 0107009 describe the use of the enzyme lysine oxidase to covalently attach cosmetic agents to hair, skin, and nails.
In another approach, cosmetic agents have been covalently attached to proteins or protein hydrolysates. For example, Lang et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,332 describe temporary coloring compositions that contain an animal or vegetable protein, or hydrolysate thereof, which contain residues of dye molecules grafted onto the protein chain. In those compositions, the protein serves as a conditioning agent and does not enhance the binding of the cosmetic agent to hair, skin, or nails. Horikoshi et al. in JP 08104614 and Igarashi et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,597,386 describe hair coloring agents that consist of an anti-keratin antibody covalently attached to a dye or pigment. The antibody binds to the hair, thereby enhancing the binding of the hair coloring agent to the hair. Similarly, Kizawa et al. in JP 09003100 describe an antibody that recognizes the surface layer of hair and its use to treat hair. A hair coloring agent consisting of that anti-hair antibody coupled to colored latex particles is also described. The use of antibodies to enhance the binding of dyes to the hair is effective in increasing the durability of the hair coloring, but these antibodies are difficult and expensive to produce. Terada et al. in JP 2002363026 describe the use of conjugates consisting of single-chain antibodies, preferably anti-keratin, coupled to dyes, ligands, and cosmetic agents for skin and hair care compositions. The single-chain antibodies may be prepared using genetic engineering techniques, but are still difficult and expensive to prepare because of their large size. Findlay in WO 00048558 describes the use of calycin proteins, such as β-lactoglobulin, which contain a binding domain for a cosmetic agent and another binding domain that binds to at least a part of the surface of a hair fiber or skin surface, for conditioners, dyes, and perfumes. Again these proteins are large and difficult and expensive to produce.
Linter in U.S. Pat. No. 6,620,419 describes peptides grafted to a fatty acid chain and their use in cosmetic and dermopharmaceutical applications. The peptides described in that disclosure are chosen because they stimulate the synthesis of collagen; they are not specific binding peptides that enhance the durability of hair and skin conditioners, and hair, nail, and skin colorants.
Peptide-based hair conditioners, hair colorants, and other benefit agents have also been developed to improve the durability of these compositions (Huang et al., copending and commonly owned U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0050656, and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0226839). The peptide-based hair conditioners or colorants are prepared by coupling a specific peptide sequence that has a high binding affinity to hair with a conditioning or coloring agent, respectively. The peptide portion binds to the hair, thereby strongly attaching the conditioning or coloring agent. Peptides with a high binding affinity to hair have been identified using phage display screening techniques (Huang et al., supra; Estell et al. WO 0179479; Murray et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0098524; Janssen et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0152976; and Janssen et al., WO 04048399).
Additionally, Reisch (Chem. Eng. News 80:16-21 (2002)) reports that a family of peptides designed to target an ingredient of specific human tissue has been developed for personal care applications. However, no description of peptide-based conditioners or coloring agents are disclosed in that publication. Although these peptide-based reagents offer much promise in personal care applications, they generally require covalent coupling of the peptide to the coloring agent. The covalent coupling chemistry may be complex and time consuming, and adds to the cost of the reagent.
In view of the above, a need exists for colorants for body surfaces, such as hair, skin, nails, and teeth that provide improved durability for long lasting effects and are easy and inexpensive to prepare.
Applicants have addressed the stated need by identifying peptide sequences using phage display screening that specifically bind to body surfaces, such as, hair, skin, nails, teeth, gums, and oral cavity surfaces, with high affinity and coupling them with specific pigment-binding peptides to provide diblock and triblock peptide-based reagents that may be used in conjunction with pigments to color body surfaces.